


Rich Kid Problems

by JennaTalbot



Category: Raven Cycle - Maggie Stiefvater
Genre: M/M, Minor Blood/Injury, its very minor but this is a fic about needing a band-aid so
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-19
Updated: 2018-07-19
Packaged: 2019-06-12 17:06:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,267
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15344475
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JennaTalbot/pseuds/JennaTalbot
Summary: Gansey needs band-aids. Ronan is more than happy to supply them.





	Rich Kid Problems

“We’ve been walking forever. How far are we going to go before we decide we’ve had enough for the day?”

Gansey sighed. “Just a little farther, Blue. I have a good feeling about today. Let’s at least get over to that clearing,” he pointed to a sunlit patch off in the distance where the canopy parted enough to let the light through fully.

The forest was dark around them, ever-shifting as the wind blew through the trees. The resulting whispers alternated between soothing and ominous, but right now, Gansey just found them irritating. Or perhaps that was just his tired feet making him cranky. Ronan was right — Top Siders really didn’t make for great forest-exploring shoes, but Gansey would never tell him that.  

Ronan and Adam said nothing, but Gansey knew they were getting tired as well. They all were, but something was telling him that he needed to be in Cabeswater today. He wasn’t quite ready to admit that there had been no reason for the certainty that he felt.

The group trudged on, but no matter how long they walked, Gansey’s mysterious clearing never seemed to get any closer. 

Finally, he sighed. “I think it’s time we—”

He yelped as he tripped over an exposed tree root and went crashing to the ground.

Pain coursed through his knee, and he looked down at his leg. “Ow,” he said, spotting the streak of red that had already welled up against his tanned skin.

“Are you ok?” Adam asked, while Ronan just snickered in the background.

“Gansey, did you have a nice trip?”

Blue glared at Ronan. “It’s not funny, Lynch.”

“Sure it is, Sargent,” he mocked with a lazy grin. 

Gansey fished a handkerchief out of his pocket, ignoring the bickering around him. “I’m fine,” he said to Adam, or maybe to no one in particular. He wasn’t sure if Adam was paying attention to him anymore.

He pressed the handkerchief to his knee, a little uneasy about how much blood was actually coming from just the one cut. But, he had survived worse. It wasn’t deep, and he knew it wouldn’t need stitches, but wandering around with an open wound in a magical forest probably wasn’t a great idea.

“I guess this is a sign that we should be done for the day,” Gansey commented, still sitting on the ground. 

Ronan looked down at him and saw the blood for the first time. He frowned for a second, and then a curious look crossed his face. 

“Give me a minute,” he said, taking a step back.

Everyone turned to look at him as he closed his eyes, his face devoid of emotion. Gansey could feel himself staring, and he felt his cheeks grow warm, but he didn’t look away. After a full minute of silence, Adam finally cleared his throat, ready to speak, but Ronan opened his eyes, grinning wildly. 

Adam lifted an eyebrow. “And what, exactly, was that?”   
  
Instead of answering, Ronan reached up to one of the lower lying branches from an old oak tree. He pulled down a small, brown box. When he opened it, his grin grew even wider. With a flourish, he pulled out a thin paper object and held it out towards Gansey. 

“I had a discussion with Cabeswater, who regretfully informed me that they are not a doctor. However, I was able to persuade them to magic me up some of these,” he waved the object again, before handing it down to Gansey.

“Band-aids?” Gansey frowned. “I didn’t know Cabeswater could do that. How did you know it would?”

Ronan just shrugged. “Cabeswater can do just about anything, if you know how to ask.”

Gansey stared at Ronan, and then finally accepted the band-aid from him. “Ronan, you truly are a magnificent creature,” he said with a shake of his head, and he meant it.    
  
While Gansey was opening the paper seal, he missed the smirk that ghosted across Ronan’s face. 

Without really looking, Gansey removed the handkerchief from his knee. It had mostly stopped bleeding now, but he knew the band-aid would be good for when he started walking again. He put it on, and only belatedly realized that it was a deep green color, instead of the standard beige. Initially, Gansey figured it was just a result of Cabeswater, but the yellow text caught his eye and made him look closer.

Silently, he looked up and made eye contact with Ronan, who was wearing a splendid, shit eating grin. 

“I picked them out just for you,” he said, clearly trying to keep the laughter out of his voice. 

Gansey put his head in his hands and sighed. 

“What does it say?” Blue asked. 

Adam leaned forward to look and snorted. “I tripped getting out of my helicopter,” he read.

At that point, Ronan dissolved into laughter, with Blue and Adam joining him. After a moment, Gansey shook his head and chuckled as well. Only Ronan would have the mind to dream up something like that. 

Adam helped him up to his feet and they turned around, prepared for a long trek back to the edge of the forest and the Pig. But the walk back was much shorter, and Gansey found himself wondering if Ronan had asked for that too, or if Cabeswater had simply had enough of them for the day. 

 

—  — — 

 

A week later, Gansey was sitting at his desk, Ronan lying on his bed behind him. The sunlight was streaming in through the windows of Monmouth, highlighting the dust in the air and the details in the parts of Ronan’s tattoo that stuck out from his shirt. Absently, Gansey thought he should probably clean or something— that was what people did, right? This much dust probably wasn’t great for a person. 

He flipped the page of the text he was reading, slicing his finger  while his mind was distracted in the process. He hissed, holding his finger up to his face to inspect the damage.

“You ok?” Ronan asked.

Gansey sighed, sticking his finger in his mouth. “Yeah, just a papercut.”

“Oh, I’ve got this,” Ronan said as he practically leapt off of the bed. After a few moments and a couple of loud thuds, Ronan returned, holding a brown, wooden box. Gansey immediately recognized it as the one from Cabeswater. 

“Ronan…”

Ronan grinned and held out a band-aid. Gansey hesitated a moment before taking it. He had to admit, he was a little curious about what else Ronan had made them say, or if they were all about his sister’s helicopter. He peeled back the wrapper and laughed despite himself. It was a terrible yellow color with green, blocky font. 

“Got a papercut from all my benjamins,” Gansey read as he shook his head. 

“I thought it was fitting,” Ronan said with a grin as he settled back down onto Gansey’s bed, discarding the box next to him.

Gansey watched him, curious. “How many of these are in there?”

“A few,” Ronan relied cryptically. 

“Do you know what they all say?”

Instead of answering, Ronan just gave him a grin that looked all the more feral from where he was currently lying on his back, head hanging upside down off of the edge of the bed. 

Gansey gave up on getting a firm answer and sighed, wrapping the band-aid around his finger and turning back to his book. The garish yellow was fixed firmly in his peripheral vision as he rested his hand on one of the pages.

It was only a couple of hours before Gansey found himself with another injury. 

“Jesus,” he hissed as he hopped on one foot after kicking the corner of his desk. 

Ronan had long since abandoned him, deeming him ‘too boring’, and had gone somewhere with Noah. The crashes out in the parking lot had fallen silent, and Gansey still wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing. 

He trusted Noah to come get him if there was a serious incident, but had decided to go stick his head out the window and check, just to be sure, which was when his toe had an unplanned meeting with the edge of his desk. 

Gansey looked down and groaned when he saw a speck of red. His eyes then traveled over to his bed, where Ronan had left the mysterious band-aid box. This probably wasn’t deserving of a band-aid, but Gansey was still curious about the box’s contents, and Ronan was currently gone. 

Crossing the room, he grabbed the box and pulled it open. To his surprise, there was just one band-aid, sitting innocently on the bottom of the box.

“I guess there was only three,” Gansey muttered as he pulled it out. He might as well use this one now that he was already looking at it. 

He pulled the paper open and laughed delightedly. This one was an awful mustard yellow color with the same blocky text as before, this time in dark green. It read: ‘STUBBED MY TOE ON MY YACHT’.

The wrapping was already open, so instead of wasting the band-aid, Gansey placed it on his toe, covering the spot he was convinced was going to bruise. Once it was in place, he got back up and crossed over to the window, relieved to see Ronan and Noah in the middle of the lot with something that looked suspiciously like a hacky sack.

He went back to his desk, careful where he placed his feet, and turned his attention back to his reading. 

By the time Ronan and Noah came back inside, the shadows were growing long, and Gansey realized he should probably turn on a lamp. They trudged in, letting the humid summer air invade the relative coolness of Monmouth. Depending on the season, one of the advantages to living in an old factory was the constant draft.    

“Gansey, are you still reading?” Ronan asked as he and Noah finished playfully shoving each other across the room.

“A better question,” Noah interrupted before Gansey could respond, “What is on your foot?”

They all looked down at Gansey’s feet, to where his big toe was sporting the yellow band-aid. 

“I stubbed my toe,” Gansey said as if that answered Noah’s question. 

Ronan looked incredibly pleased with himself. “That’s one of mine, isn’t it?”

A small flash of guilt ran through Gansey. So far, Ronan had given two of the band-aids to him, but Gansey didn’t know if Ronan intended to give his last one away for something as ridiculous as a stubbed toe. “Yes, it is. You left the box on my bed and I just—”

“What does this one say?” Ronan asked, and the grin on his face dispelled most of Gansey’s guilt. 

“Stubbed my toe on my yacht,” Gansey said, as Noah barked out a laugh. 

“Oh, that one is my favorite so far,” Noah said.

Gansey’s smile slipped a little. “I think this was the last one.”

Ronan laughed. “Oh don’t worry Gansey, there’s more where that came from.”

“That was the last one in the box,” Gansey replied, cocking his head slightly to the side. He knew what he had seen.

Ronan sat on the edge of Gansey’s bed and pulled the box to him, opening the lid. He held it out for Gansey to see. At the bottom of the box, was one single band-aid.

Gansey shook his head. “When I took this one out, it was definitely the last one. The box was empty.”

“One per use, but unlimited uses,” Ronan said with a shrug. 

“You’re telling me that you had Cabeswater give you an unlimited supply of band-aids? That just… magically appear, one at a time?”

“An unlimited supply of band-aids with hilarious sayings on them,” Ronan corrected. 

Gansey paused. “How is that even possible?”

Ronan shrugged as Noah interjected, “Gansey, you’re living with a ghost. Shouldn’t you just assume anything is possible at this point?”

“Our occasionally friendly ghost has a point,” Ronan said. “Cabeswater shouldn’t be possible, Chainsaw shouldn’t be possible, and kings who have been asleep for hundreds of years also shouldn’t be possible. And yet here we are.”

Gansey let that thought process in his mind for a moment. “You’re right,” he finally said. 

Ronan grinned. “What was that? I didn’t hear you.”

“I said you’re right, Ronan,” Gansey repeated, doing an excellent job at keeping his matching grin off of his face. No need to inflate Ronan’s ego more than it already was. “Have you tried pulling out more of these? Do they show up all the time, or only when you need one?”

“So far, you’re the only one that has needed them,” Ronan pointed out dryly, one eyebrow raised.

Gansey flushed slightly. “So I’ll take that as an ‘I don’t know’ then.”

“I have absolutely no idea,” Ronan said as he flipped the lid open again. Inside was one band-aid. He fished it out and handed it to Gansey. “Whatever it is, I’m sure it’s for you at this point.”

“Thanks,” Gansey rolled his eyes as he accepted the band-aid. 

“What does this one say?” Noah asked from where he was hovering in his doorway. 

Gansey peeled back the paper to examine the green band-aid with dark green block lettering. “I was crushed by my trust fund,” he read. 

Ronan peered closely at Gansey. “Well it doesn’t look like you’ve been crushed, so I guess these things just show up whenever they feel like it.”

“They must,” Gansey replied, not bothering to inform Ronan that there was more than one meaning to the word crush.  

**Author's Note:**

> This is based off of this image: https://i.pinimg.com/736x/df/60/51/df60513d04277020d6c7d540835420aa.jpg
> 
> Shoutout to all of the people who thought this would be a good idea, I actually did it


End file.
